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YATESVILLE — The 2017-18 Coughlin wrestling team will go down as one of the best dual meet teams in school history.
This year’s Crusaders team won the division title for the second time in four years. But it also became the first in school history to claim a non-shared Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title, and the school’s first division title of that kind since 2004 when it won the East Division.
The Crusaders also were just the second team in Coughlin lore to reach the finals of the District 2 Class 3A Duals Tournament.
It just so happened, though, that they fell to an exceptionally good Delaware Valley squad 40-22 on Saturday for the district title.
“If they don’t wrestle well, I’ll let them know about it. But I had no issues today,” Coughlin coach Dave Parsnik said. “Everybody wrestled the best they could. We were there for a while. We just needed a couple more bouts going our way and it would have been a little bit tighter.”
The Crusaders went toe-to-toe with DelVal, as they did what they had done so many times this season when they rolled through DelVal opponents in the middle weights. The dual started at 113 pounds, and after the Warriors took a 12-6 lead four weights in, Coughlin won the next four weights.
Josh Brown (138) started the roll with a pin in 41 seconds to tie the match at 12-12. Joey Pahler, the 145-pounder, won by decision to give Coughlin a 15-12 lead. Tashawn Qualls followed with a major decision at 152, while Tanner Smith nailed down a 5-2 win at 160 to give Coughlin a 22-12 lead.
“I said in the beginning of the match to my assistant coach that if we’re within 10-15 points going into 182, we’re fine,” Delaware Valley coach Lou DeLauro said. “Was I nervous though? Absolutely, because anything can happen, but we don’t want to let the kids know that.”
But the Warriors had their most veteran wrestlers still remaining. And one-by-one, those athletes came through as DV won the last six bouts.
A decision from Andrew Kidd over Jake Cole at 182, and a fall by Jose Falcon at 220 over Connor Lee proved to be enormous for the Warriors.
“That’s a big win (by Kidd). Cole’s one of the better kids in the district,” DeLauro noted. “So Andrew knocking off one of the best kids in the district is always a big deal.”
John McCarthy, DelVal’s 100-win club member and three-time regional qualifier, pulled out a 3-1 win over Corey Harrison at 285 to clinch the win — giving his team a 34-22 advantage with just one weight remaining.
DelVal advances to the PIAA Team Championships at Hershey’s Giant Center beginning on Thursday. The win marks the Warriors’ fifth D2-3A title, second-most in history behind Hazleton Area’s six, but it’s their first title since 2013.
Coughlin has non-divisional duals on the schedule versus WVC Division 2 champion Lake-Lehman, West Scranton and Meyers in preparation for the individual postseason, which begins with the district tournament on Feb. 23-24 at the Kingston Armory when Coughlin will be looking for its first district team title since 1995.
“Honestly, I think we have a better tournament team than a dual meet team so I hope that pans out,” Parsnik said.
In the consolations, Tunkhannock battled back after a loss to Delaware Valley on Wednesday to win two duals on Saturday to claim third place. The Tigers defeated West Scranton (45-31) and Scranton (42-33) in the two victories.
In a bout of two highly-ranked wrestlers in the state, Scranton’s Jeremiah Oakes (ranked 18th by PA Power Wrestling at 145 pounds) defeated the Tigers’ Tommy Traver (10th at 132) 3-1 when Traver bumped up a weight.
In Class 2A, Honesdale, which knocked off Lake-Lehman earlier in the week to reach the finals, defeated Western Wayne 36-27 to repeat as tournament champion. The Black Knights rebounded from the loss to the Hornets to win twice on Saturday and finish third.
Lehman beat Nanticoke (52-28) to reach the third-place match before knocking off Scranton Prep, 51-24.
District Duals at a Glance
Class 2A
Quarterfinals
Lake-Lehman 50, Montrose 24
Honesdale 44, Lake-Lehman 27
Western Wayne 57, Berwick 15
Scranton Prep 57, Nanticoke 20
Semifinals
Western Wayne 45, Scranton Prep 26
Honesdale 47, Lake-Lehman 28
Finals
Honesdale 36, Western Wayne 27
First Round Consolations
Wyoming Area 39, Montrose 38
Nanticoke 37, Berwick 36 (won on criteria)
Second Round Consolations
Scranton Prep 48, Wyoming Area 27
Lake-Lehman 52, Nanticoke 28
Third Place
Lake-Lehman 51, Scranton Prep 24
Class 3A
Quarterfinals
Coughlin 51, Abington Heights 20
Hazleton Area 40, West Scranton 30
Tunkhannock 48, Scranton 25
Delaware Valley 54, Dallas 19
Semifinals
Coughlin 42, Hazleton Area 33
Delaware Valley 41, Tunkhannock 28
Finals
Delaware Valley 40, Coughlin 22
First Round Consolation
West Scranton 48, Abington Heights 21
Scranton 42,, Dallas 34
Second Round Consolation
Scranton 37, Hazleton Area 34
Tunkhannock 45, West Scranton 31
Third Place
Tunkhannock 42, Scranton 33
CLASS 3A
Finals
Delaware Valley 40, Coughlin 22
106 — Joe Porco (DV) pinned Nino Cinti 5:39; 113 — Preston Machado (DV) pinned Tino Morrow 3:07; 120 — Darren Clarke (Cou) pinned Joe Casella :39; 126 — Machias Magill (DV) dec Patrick Clarke 6-3; 132 — Mike McKinney (DV) dec Jake Brown 3-0; 138 — Josh Brown (Cou) pinned Zane Yankalunas :41; 145 — Joey Pahler (Cou) dec Jack Dardia 3-1; 152 — Tashawn Qualls (Cou) maj dec Damien Lobello 13-2; 160 — Tanner Smith (Cou) dec Gavin Brazanskas 5-2; 170 — Jason Henderson (DV) pinned Joe Davis 0:39; 182 — Andrew Kidd (DV) dec Jake Cole 7-3; 195 — Shane Fagan (DV) maj dec Aaron Warnagiris 10-2; 220 — Jose Falcon (DV) pinned Connor Lee 3:24; 285 — John McCarthy (DV) dec Corey Harrison 3-1
Note: Match started at 113 pounds
Third-Place
Tunkhannock 42, Scranton 33
106 — David Evans (Tun) pinned Dwight Abrams :42; 113 — Matt Rosentel (Tun) won by forfeit; 120 — Dave Gavek (Tun) pinned Breydan Smith 1:12; 126 — Robert Zelinski (Scr) won by forfeit; 132 — Michael Tuffy (Scr) dec Ethan Munley 6-2; 138 — Gavin D’Amato (Tun) won by forfeit; 145 — Jeremiah Oakes (Scr) dec Tommy Traver 3-1; 152 — William Evanitsky (Scr) pinned Kurtis Christ :59; 160 — Jacob Burgette (Scr) pinned Brian Christ 1:28; 170 — Hayden D’Angelo (Scr) dec Shane Sherwood 6-2; 182 — Connor Munley (Tun) pinned Jehovany Gbedan 1:58; 195 — Brandon Crusen (Scr) won by forfeit; 220 — Jake Stephens (Tun) won by forfeit; 285 — Sam Rice (Tun) pinned Roy Gonzalez :38
Note: Match started at 106 pounds
CLASS 2A
Third-Place
Lake-Lehman 51, Scranton Prep 24
106 — Jack Lynett (SP) pinned Gavin Ruger, 2:38); 113 — Connor Chernesky (SP) pinned Bradon Boston, 0:15; 120 — Zack Stuart (LL) pinned Zach Kornfeld, 1:08; 126 — Josh Bonomo (LL) pinned Thomas Dickinson, 0:33; 132 — Bob Long (LL) pinned Joe Monahan, 0:15; 138 — Garrett Kolb (LL) dec. Oliver Egan, 4-2; 145 — Hunter Burke (LL) pinned MJ Stivala, 0:29; 152 — Jake Trumbower (LL) pinned Mikey Welsh, 2:50; 160 — Alec Buttner (SP) pinned Chase Button, 1:04; 170 — Nick Zaboski (LL) pinned Geoffrey Pizzto, 0:39; 182 — Thomas Nalbone (LL) pinned Luke Johnson, 3:00; 195 — Ivan Balavage (SP) pinned Tj Meehan, 0:58; 220 — Chuck Harry (LL) dec. Luke Dougherty, 8-6; 285 — Kaleb Konigus (LL) dec. Will McGregor, 1-0.
Note: Match started at 106 pounds
2nd-Round Consolations
Scranton Prep 48, Wyoming Area 27
106 — Jack Lynett (SP) pinned Kyle Emsley, 4:41; 113 — Antonio D’Apollonio (SP) pinned Adam Sigman, 1:59; 120 — Connor Chernesky (SP) won by forfeit; 126 — Thomas Dickinson (SP) won by forfeit; 132 — Joe Monahan (SP) pinned Sydni Johnson, 0:38; 138 — Robin Wrobleski (WA) dec. Oliver Egan, 4-2; 145 —M.J. Stivala (SP) dec. Tyler Martin, 16-13; 152 — Charlie Banashefski (WA) pinned Mike Welsh, 3:39; 160 — Alec Buttner (SP) dec. Corey Mruk, 14-8; 170 — Alex Pierce (WA) pinned Geoffrey Pizzuto, 0:29; 182 — Jaryn Polit-Moran (WA) pinned Luke Johnson, 0:49; 195 — Ivan Balavage (SP) won by forfeit; 220 — Luke Dougherty (SP) pinned Aidan Dolak, 1:47; 285 — Damon Barhight (WA) pinned Will McGregor, 1:03.
Note: Match started at 285 pounds